For
the past two weeks two Washington Post reporters, Chris Mooney and
Whitney Shefte, have been exploring Greenland, an enormous Arctic
island that has scientists increasingly troubled as it continues to
slowly melt. The two had an opportunity to tag along with a
scientific team who were conducting research on the diminishing ice
sheet.

Over
the course of their travel, Mooney and Shefte have been documenting
their adventure and observations on The Washington Post’s Instagram
account. Here are some of the stunning scenes they came across during
their travel.

The
start of their arctic journey began in New Jersey, where the pair
hopped on a C17 plane from McGuire Air Force Base and flew to Thule
Air Force Base located in the northwest section of the island.

There,
they explored the surrounding area for a few days, snapping pictures
of glaciers in the North Star Bight and near the Wolstenholme Fjord
before heading up the island to one of the most northern towns in the
world: Qaanaaq.

After
a brief respite in town, Mooney and Shefte prepared themselves for
the real trek, where they would be helicopter hopping across the
island with two scientists who would be conducting some research on
one of the icy island’s farthest northern glaciers.

A
few refueling stops later, the duo finally landed on a massive
floating ice shelf: that of the Petermann Glacier.

The
shelf itself is 10 by 30 miles in area, and one of the largest in
Greenland. Mooney and Shefte followed Glaciologist Keith Nicholls and
oceanographer Andreas Muenchow during their time on the massive piece
of ice.

As
they made their way around the shelf, they uploaded more breathtaking
images of the glaciers to Instagram, while providing snippets of
observations within the captions.

After
spending a little more than a day observing the scientists on the
ice, the crew hopped back across the island to get back to base. They
grabbed their materials and notes to report on what they had learned
while on the island, and flew off to return to Washington D.C.

The
report itself will be published in the upcoming weeks, as Greenland’s
melting situation continues and scientists observe the islands’
decline.

Mooney
and Shefte also documented their excursion on Greenland in many more
photos. Be sure to see what else they captured by following them on
Instagram at @moonecc and @whitneyshefte.